A New Generation of Plant Breeders Discovers Fertile Ground in Organic Agriculture
1
Department of Horticulture, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1575 Linden Dr., Madison, WI 53706, USA
2
Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 550 N. Park St., Madison, WI 53706, USA
3
Department of Agronomy, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1575 Linden Dr., Madison, WI 53706, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
†
These authors contributed equally to this work.
Sustainability 2013, 5(6), 2722-2726; https://doi.org/10.3390/su5062722
Received: 17 May 2013
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Revised: 5 June 2013
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Accepted: 13 June 2013
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Published: 19 June 2013
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Organic Farming and a Systems Approach to Sustainable Agroecosystems)
Plant breeding for organic systems is a growing field that is attracting a new cohort of graduate students in land-grant plant breeding programs. In 2012, the first Student Organic Seed Symposium (SOSS) was organized by and for graduate students and held in Greensboro, VT. This three-day symposium brought together graduate students and plant breeding professionals in the public, private, and non-profit sectors. Organic plant breeding offers an exciting new niche for public breeding programs, with the potential to develop unique opportunities and partnerships. Participation in the symposium demonstrated that graduate students are enthusiastic about engaging in organic plant breeding and building a community of support for their work. This new cadre of researchers represents one opportunity to collectively move towards a more sustainable agricultural future, and underscores the necessity of building and maintaining strong public plant breeding programs that can facilitate this work.
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Keywords:
plant breeding; organic agriculture; graduate education
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License
MDPI and ACS Style
Luby, C.H.; Lyon, A.H.; Shelton, A.C. A New Generation of Plant Breeders Discovers Fertile Ground in Organic Agriculture. Sustainability 2013, 5, 2722-2726. https://doi.org/10.3390/su5062722
AMA Style
Luby CH, Lyon AH, Shelton AC. A New Generation of Plant Breeders Discovers Fertile Ground in Organic Agriculture. Sustainability. 2013; 5(6):2722-2726. https://doi.org/10.3390/su5062722
Chicago/Turabian StyleLuby, Claire H., Alexandra H. Lyon, and Adrienne C. Shelton. 2013. "A New Generation of Plant Breeders Discovers Fertile Ground in Organic Agriculture" Sustainability 5, no. 6: 2722-2726. https://doi.org/10.3390/su5062722
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